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Friday, October 28, 2011

Crash Hot Potatoes Recipe

Like I've mentioned before, this blog is really a space for me to share my daily personal experience and joy about food, which is what I'm going to do right now.

On a normal weeknight, my meals are pretty straight-forward. I'm out all day and do MOST of my cooking at night, which is pretty much the same as what all you working folks go through each day. By then, I really only have minimal capacity to cook nothing but seriously simple dishes. I save my "experimental" cooking more for the holidays or the weekends and stick to routine on the weekdays.

Like I said, weekdays are really straight-forward but every dinner normally consists of meat/fish + veg + carbs. But different variations of each. It's just what I've been used to for dinners growing up. Then, I will decide whether I'm doing Asian or Western that night. When it's Asian night, I'd eat (lots of) rice for carbs. For Western night, it'll be potato or pasta.

I've made so much mashed potato over the years for Western night because it's one of the first few things I learned to make for myself. Even though I've done SO many variations, mash is still mash. And I'm so bored of having mash for Western night.

That's why I go to The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog for lots of ideas and inspiration to kick myself out of my rut. She shares recipes that are just as hearty and delicious as they are easy to make, with amazing step-by-step photography and food styling. Truly a remarkable woman.

So today, I invite you to try this Crash Hot Potatoes recipe that I've been making from her site. It's crazy simple and great to make if you want to change things up a bit from your usual potato recipe. You don't even need quantities in the recipe and you'll see why. Like I said, I'm quite bored of doing mash already so I will be trying lots of different things with potatoes from now.

One last thing, the recipe calls for the use of a potato masher, which I don't have. So, what I do is I pierce the taters with a wooden spatula before flattening it with the bottom of a small pot. Not ideal but heck, it works. It may scatter because the bottom is smooth and there's no grip but I just scoop them back together, easy. All good though, because those small crushed bits just gives more surface area of crunch after they're baked, which I love. But, yes. If you do have a potato masher, it's much easier and cleaner to press with.

* Make as many as you want, as long as they can fit in the baking tray

** I used Rosemary and Dill for this, fresh herbs are preferable

Method:

Preheat oven to 230 deg C. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add in as many baby potatoes as you wish. Cook until they are fork-tender. On a sheet pan/baking tray, generously drizzle with olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the pan leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato 90 degrees and mash again. If not, pierce the potatoes with a wooden spatula and make several incisions before pressing it down with a pot. Scoop potatoes back together if they scatter.

Brush the tops generously with more olive oil. Sprinkle herbs on top and crack lots of salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Thanks so much, Mich!! As for the schnitzels, bake them in the oven! Much less smell (and oily) compared to pan frying them haha... I popped them in together with the taters.

For post cooking smell, I really always just turn on the exhaust (while I'm cooking) and open all the windows in the apartment for a few hours until they're gone. Normally it won't smell after a few hrs... Unless I do things like deep frying and steak and it still lingers, then I'd have to resort to spraying air fresheners here and there hahaha...

It's the best, isn't it?! Yes, at first I was worried about all the little crumbed bits that scattered but they turned out to be DELISH! So, I totally don't mind them anymore hehehe... Crunchy bits FTW =O

Thanks heaps, Yas!! I'm glad that this sorta reminded you of home and your mum. I really LOVE it when food does that and glad that you said this simple dish gave you a sense of nostalgia. Gives me more reason to cook! Appreciate your kind words, Yas =]

This is absolutely amazing :) The complete dish looks really delish, fresh and packed with flavour.Oh and by the way, if you wanna try out something typically French, you should probably start with roasted onion soup with Comté cheese and grilled toast. Then the whole damn thing grilled. Heck yeah. The French grill and they mean it! =DAnd the mushroom & rosemary sauce has a French ring to it. T'as tout compris! ^^

@gourmet: Hahahhaa.... Yeah I know how that sounds but that really is the dilemma I face almost everyday! It's a very BROAD generalisation to make, Asian or Western but I love them BOTH just as much! That's why I have a difficulty choosing and they're both completely different haha! All good tho cause I try to "take turns" hehe...

@marie-anne: Hey Marie-Anne! Thanks for that French phrase, it's really fun to receive and also to use google translate to learn what they mean after haha... Btw THANKS HEAPS for the suggestion! That sounds so darn good to me like you wouldn't believe. Will look out for a recipe and try them when I start my holiday end of Nov haha... I've got a few recipes that I can't wait to try already will let you know about them later! =D

Yes, and those crunchy edges is very much the BEST part about this recipe hehe. And to be honest, I just like any excuse to SMASH my food hehehe... Not a lot of chances for us to do that, you know?! Fun times in the kitchen haha =D

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About Me

Passionate about home-cooking and restaurant dishes that are value for money. Hails all the way from the humble town of Kota Kinabalu in Borneo, Malaysia. Sharing food, sharing life.
Contact: wince@thehungryexcavator.com